Tokyo Olympics: Ryan Murphy and Hugo Gonzalez in Men's 100m Back Final; USA Sofball in Gold Medal match
Tokyo Olympics: Ryan Murphy and Hugo Gonzalez in Men's 100m Back Final; USA Sofball in Gold Medal match
Calympians look to add to the one Bronze medal earned so far on Monday night/Tuesday morning
It will be another busy day (night/early morning for the US audience) for the “Calympians” tonight. Can Cal alum Ryan Murphy (USA) repeat as the Men’s 100m Back Gold medalist? Can rising redshirt senior Hugo Gonzalez (Spain) somehow find his way to the podium?
Cal great Valerie Arioto is already assured of a medal, but will that be Gold or Silver? Team USA takes on Japan for the Gold on Tuesday morning.
Murphy will have to hold off a strong group of swimmers to defend his 2016 Rio Gold as well as the current World Record. Russian pair of Kliment Kolesnikovand Evgeny Rylov as well as China’s Xu Jiayu are all serious contenders.
Murphy did set the best time in the semifinals with a 52.24. Will he break his own World Record of 51.85 tonight? I suspect that whoever takes the Gold will probably also earn the new World Record.
Hugo Gonzalez had a semifinal swim of 53.05, good for 7th best to earn him a spot in the final. How much more time can he drop now that he has a precious lane?
USA Softball vs. Japan (Gold Medal Match - 4 AM PT)
Since I did not get to write about all of the Cal-related action at Tokyo so far, here is a quick rundown of what had happened.
A 48th “Calympian” - Nikhil Kumar (USA) was knocked out in men’s table tennis in his Olympic debut. The 18-year-old will matriculate at Cal this fall in Computer Science. [H/T to Avinash].
Medals - Abbey Weitzeil, USA, Bronze - Women’s 4x100m Free Relay
GO BEARS!